The King Next Door by Maureen Child Read Free Book Online

for the back door. “You know…sometimes things change whether you want them to or not. And not even a King can stop it.”
    Griffin didn’t bother saying aloud what he was thinking. You can stop anything — if you never let it get started.
    Trouble was, Griffin told himself as he walked out of the destruction into the summer sunlight, as far as Nicole was concerned, he had a feeling it was already too late.
    Something had already started between them.
    Putting the brakes on might not be as easy as he’d like.
    *
    Nothing said summer more than the scent of hamburgers on a grill.
    Nicole stepped out of Katie’s kitchen, carrying a bowl of potato salad and a plate filled with sliced tomatoes, onions and cheese for the burgers Griffin was flipping on the grill.
    Her gaze slid across the grass until she spotted her son, playing in the sandbox table Griffin had retrieved from her yard. Connor was completely entranced with pushing his toy dinosaurs through sand mountains, so she set the potato salad down under the umbrella shading the redwood table, then she walked to Griffin.
    She studied him as she got closer and, as usual, her gaze did the up-and-down thing until she’d examined every really gorgeous inch of him. He was wearing those board shorts again and his bare back was broad and tanned to a dark gold. His hips were narrow, his muscular legs long, and his black hair curled at the nape of his neck.
    A flutter of something interesting wafted through her and Nicole had to take a deep breath to steady herself. Seriously, didn’t the man own a shirt?
    “Dinner’s almost ready,” he said as she approached.
    “Good. I’m starving.” In more ways than one, she realized.
    “Barbecuing is the one kind of cooking I can do without having to call the fire department.” As soon as he said it, he winced. “Sorry.”
    “It’s okay.” She waved off the apology even as she shrugged off the memories the mention of the fire department had caused. After all, it had only been a single day since her house had become uninhabitable. Not surprising that she was still a little touchy on the subject of fire. Heck, she hadn’t even watched Griffin as he turned on the propane flames on the barbecue.
    “Lucas emailed me a brief proposal,” she said, setting the plate of cheese and vegetables down on the workbench alongside the truly impressive grill Rafe had built the summer he and Katie first got together.
    She thought about Lucas’s proposal and had to muffle a whine. Even cutting the cost down to the bone—which she knew Lucas had done because of Nicole’s friendship with Katie King—the total had staggered her. She was going to have to either take out a small home-equity loan to cover her deductible, or maybe she could work out a payment schedule with King Construction. Something to think about, anyway.
    “Good.” Griffin glanced at her, then turned his attention back to the burgers on the grill. He reached for the cheese and slapped a slice on each burger. “Lucas said he could have a crew out here starting the teardown as early as tomorrow.”
    “Teardown.” She sighed a little at the image those words created. Then she looked up to find Griffin watching her.
    “Then they’ll start the redo,” he said softly. “Does that make it easier?”
    Not really. “I suppose.”
    He dropped one hand onto her shoulder and the heat of his touch sent a wave of warmth radiating through her body.
    “Lucas promised to get the job done as fast as he could.”
    “I know.” She looked over the fence at her house and couldn’t help thinking that it looked…lonely. For the first time in her memory, the house was empty, and Nicole’s world was still shaken. “I appreciate you getting him to do it this quickly.”
    “Not a problem. I did have a hand in you needing the kitchen redone.”
    “Yeah,” she agreed, “you did.”
    He winced.
    “But from what your friend Jim the fireman said, the wiring was poised to go at any